4 minute read
UP, UP AND AWAY
from Scaffmag Issue 12
by ScaffMag
Over the last 10 years, the scaffolding industry has evolved faster than at any other time in history. We now have technology at our fingertips and can visualise, strategise and improvise faster and easier than ever before, Simon Boyes tells us more
Although there is one thing that has not progressed at the same pace, and that is our human ability to use our imaginations and experience to find new ways to solve old problems.
In today’s recovering market, price is the most important value that our customers are looking for when evaluating tenders or bids against one another. Safety, time and previous experience will always be considered, but for now (and the next 12 months or more) price will most often be the most important item the customer is considering. Although this poses a challenge for some scaffolding companies with high overheads and fixed costs, it also creates great opportunity.
In the words of Sir Winston Churchill: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
So, how do we make our prices go down when having a storage of cash has never been more important than it is today, while employee costs are going up and productivity is going down?
We use our imaginations and experience to find new ways to solve old problems!
I often get asked “What is your favourite type of scaffolding? Is it tube and coupler? Is it Layher? Is it Peri?” We all know that different scaffolding systems have their advantages and disadvantages, and some are better suited to one industry, while another might be better suited to another. The answer to what is the best type of scaffolding depends on how you intend to use it or, more importantly, how you can best service your client with it.
If all we ever do with our scaffolding equipment is stack one standard on top of another, we are never going to use the scaffolding to its full ability and we will always be competing with other scaffolding contractors to see who has the cheapest price. The biggest challenge scaffolding contractors face when only competing on price, is the pressure of being able to deliver the final solution and still make enough money to run a sustainable and stable workforce. The most common way that scaffolding contractors make money is, unfortunately, by taking shortcuts. Often the shortcuts are not driven by the company but more so by the workers on site who are put under strict time pressures.
Unfortunately, as we all see far too regularly in the media, the result of taking short cuts on a scaffolding site can result in multiple fatalities. There are no second chances in a scaffolding collapse and the impact of taking a short cut lingers for the rest of our lives.
So, how is it possible to make money in today’s market? The answer is by finding new ways to solve
old problems! When people ask me what my favourite type of scaffolding is, I always respond with the all-too-common phrase, “It’s not what you have but how you use it.” I am sure most guys have used this phrase before, but in this case, it is so true. Absolutely every scaffolding system has an advantage over one but a disadvantage of another; it is purely a case of finding what works for you and maximising the potential outcome.
To give you an example; tube and coupler scaffolding will always have its place due to its flexibility and low cost to purchase, but it is often slower to install and dismantle. If the project will only be installed for a few weeks, then the cost of the rental will often be outweighed by the additional labour required to install and dismantle. However, if the project hire period is longer than six weeks, the lower rental cost will outweigh the additional labour cost and make the overall project a lower cost. Now we are getting into the juicy stuff, and this is the kind of thing we all need to be thinking about to find an advantage over our competition. One of my favourite ways to build scaffolding is to build it on the ground and crane it into position. This method can save countless hours of time (reducing labour costs) but also eliminate working at heights and dropped objects risks which, again, give you an advantage over the other scaffolding contractors competing for the same project.
Traditionally, scaffolding companies have only held one type (or brand) of scaffolding and have been loyal to the one supplier, but when the market demands a new way of thinking and a new way to get an advantage over our competition, are we going to see scaffolding companies owning two, three or even four different types of scaffolding systems and use them all differently in different situations? Only time will tell.
The next 12–18 months are uncertain, and the market will respond in line with the global health situation, but when it does recover (and it will) who is going to be in a position to take full advantage of the situation and be flexible enough to evolve and be ready to grow their businesses at speeds we have never experienced?
